I have another baggie with 7 more Meiwa seeds. This bag will sit horizontal and be placed on top of the cup holding the other seeds in the vertical position. The object is to find out if it pays off to start the seed with the head facing up and the root end facing down or whether is just as good to place the seeds flat. It is much easier to just place the seed flat. There is a larger cup placed over these to hold in more heat since it is much cooler inside/outside now.

6b Steve

It takes about a week to 2 weeks for sprouting. My seeds are pressed between paper towel so mold may not be able to grow. Every thing I have tried to root in a cup with a cover has molded to death on me

Good luck with your seeds! Hope you don't have to go through 300 of them again for success.

This gets me wondering if different water would prevent mold. Have you experimented with different kinds of water? I do a lot cuttings in glass of water (various plants). I'd swear water from a bottle of Iceland Spring spring water stays cleaner than all other water I've used. Just wondering about it...

Steve, did you use commercially available soil for starting seeds instead of soil or was it from your yard? If you used yard soil, that may have been your problem.

The seeds in the ziplock bag doesn't loose water so I'll check once a week. The dirt I use has varied from potting soil, compost , pine bark fines, sand and mixes of each. I also heat to 212 to kill mold and pathogens. I still have 3 NZL twigs in soil.

6b Steve

Good luck Steve..I know you can do it..You the man!

Window sill temperatures dropped to low and I replanted all the seeds

In these four containers that get a 13 watt GFL bucket light.

I have planted anouther 30+/- Meiwa seeds in ground in the greenhouse with the spinach. The very last seeds are in my heating duct.

Where they are nice and warm.

The only Meiwa of the first 2 batches of seeds is just now starting 2 shoots from the first 2 starter leaves.

I hope you have good luck with your seedlings, Steve.

I've always been intrigued by the paper towel method. Why do people do it? I genuinely wonder. Why not sow them in soil? I always put my seeds in moist MG soil on a heat mat, with Saran Wrap covering the pot to avoid drying the soil. I have a high germination rate and I don't think I've lost a seedling yet. It's so easy that way. When the little guy has a few leaves, I transfer it into 511 and wham! Happy healthy seedling.

But anyway! To each his or her own, and all the best to you. =)

The paper towel trick works wonders. For me I use older used soil and it contains more pathogens. It kumquat seeds but tangerine seeds do fine. I don't have or want a heating mat we already have way to much stuff. My seeds in the ductwork are in soil. I have had near 100% germination from the heating duct method. The heating duct only works in winter when the furnace runs every day and every night on and off. All my starter seeds in spring are done in the duct work from spinach to watermelon.

6b Steve

Ah, I see! I'm glad it's working out well for you, then! We all find methods that suit our situation best. =)

what a coincidence today only i opened my zip lock bag and planted the seeds . 12 out of 15 germinated .

jemmalix - the paper towel in zip lock bag has a v high germination rate n far quicker than when I try direct sowing in peat. I remove the hard seed cover , wrap it with paper towel put it on heat duct as well , in a weeks time most germinate .

in all honesty never tried sowing after removing the seed shell ought to give that a try . I do the heat mat method for vegetable seeds though .

Hi Steve. What are your plans for the 30 +/- Meiwas? Are you going to graft any of the Meiwa seedlings or just keep them as seedlings?

In the real world, seeds would sprout where a fruit had fallen...unless Steve ate the fruit and spit the seed out somewhere else :>) With that as a premise, would it make sense to squeeze a little of the fruit juice on the paper towel? It might help retard the mold but would certainly ferment...not sure that would be a bad thing so long as you kept the towel moist with water too. When I juice my Ponderosa lemons, I try to put the peel, pulp, and seeds back under some of my citrus. The seeds sprout like crazy just thrown out on the ground. That's why I wound up with so many Ponderosa trees. They came up volunteer and I hated to just pull them up, so I transplanted them once they grew out some.

I don't think this is common even for calamondins but my calamondin fruit overwintered last year since we had a really mild winter. Now the remaining ripe...actually over-ripe fruit, still on the tree, have seeds inside the fruit that have sprouted a root and stalk with a little green leaf tip. I was surprised there was enough light inside the fruit for chlorophyll development but....calamondin peel is really thin and the sprouts are sure enough green.

My last batch of of seeds of about 15, only 1 made it. I might have 2 that survive out of the 30+/-. I will leave them on their own roots. One they make their first year they will have few problems. I plan to grow them on my roof in an open air structure I can quickly glass over come fall.

6b Steve

I wonder if it matters at what stage of ripeness the seed kumquats were harvested? Maybe seed fertility increases the longer the fruit stays on the tree. I think you or someone else has noted that kumquats are just harder to get to sprout than some other citrus.

I have only sprouted the Ponderosas and they clearly are almost like weeds. The one other citrus I grew from seed was a calamondin. I would have to go back and find dated photos to find out how old that tree is now (guessing 8-9 years) but it's probably 14ft tall now and hasn't fruited yet. It bloomed some several years back but didn't set fruit. The parent tree is thornless, has a gorgeous shape, and blooms and fruits plentifully. The seed-grown tree has huge thorns, is really tall and has a very small footprint/canopy, and I haven't figured out if it blooms under stress or if I need to feed it heavily.

The vast majority of fruit is eaten by animal before it is ripe. Many trees would go extinct if the seeds were not viable long before the fruit is ripe.

6b steve

Seeds are sprouting and growing.

These seed came up long after being move from the baggy into dirt and placed in my heating ductwork of my forced air furnace.

Only survivor of first batch of baggy seeds. Notice the 1/2 inch of root out of the soil to protect the trunk from damp-off.

6b Steve

first Meiwa now.

They are putting on some leaves now. They are about 1/3 the size of the early spring batch when they all died from damp-off. Once the trees reach 8 inches damp-off will be a small risk. at 18 inches they will be totally safe from damp-off. Between now and 6 inches is the riskiest time for damp-off.

6b Steve